


The Right Present

by Crysania



Series: Fluffapalooza 2015 [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 05:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3344807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crysania/pseuds/Crysania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for my sentence-starter prompt-a-thon for Fluffapalooza 2015. "It was almost Baelfire's birthday, and Belle thought she should give him a present, being his stepmother and all that, but the clock was ticking and every idea that popped into her head was worse than the one before."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Present

It was almost Baelfire's birthday, and Belle thought she should give him a present, being his stepmother and all that, but the clock was ticking and every idea that popped into her head was worse than the one before.

She first came home with a teddy bear. Kids liked bears, right? Gold took one look at it and pointed out that Baelfire was, indeed, _ten_ and that a ten-year-old kid was bound to be laughed out of his own party if he got a present like that.

Dejected but determined, Belle had returned the bear to the store and asked the clerk what a ten-year-old boy would like for a birthday present. He had given her a video game, some shoot ‘em up thing that he said was all the rage currently. When Belle had presented _that_ to Gold he had given her a rather blank look. “I hear they love them,” she had offered rather lamely. Apparently they did not actually have the console that the game was played on thus making her gift lovely and yet pointless. It went back to the store as well.

After that, she had brought back any number of things. A bike (too big), a fancy calculator (too boring), a kitten ( _Do you want my whole house destroyed?_ ). She tried, really she did, but it seemed that she was no more prepared to be a step-mother than she was to be Queen of England.

His birthday was now a week away and she had nothing to show for it. No present, nothing amazing that she could give him to win him over. Gold told her Baelfire loved her, but he was still Gold’s son, not hers, and she didn’t quite know how to deal with that just yet. They had only gotten married the summer before and this was her first time as Bae’s actual _step-mother_ and not just his Dad’s girlfriend.

She wanted to impress him. And his friends. And it seemed she was an abject failure.

Gold told her she wasn’t, that ten-year-olds were hard to shop for, that he was guaranteed to hate almost anything a parent or parental figure gave him. But it didn’t help. She was miserable and angry over the whole thing. She didn’t want to get him something he’d hate or be embarrassed by or resent. She wanted something that made him go _Ah ha! That is the best present I have ever gotten in my entire life_.

Instead she was probably going to be relegated to that totally uncool step-mother, the one that he rolled his eyes about when he didn’t think she was looking.

“Sweetheart, you’ll think of something,” Rumplestiltskin offered up late one night as they lay in bed. She was still wracking her mind for that special _something_ for her step-son.

“I’m not sure I will.” His birthday was two days away by then and she had nothing. Not even a card.

She fell asleep and dreamed of children laughing at her horrible present.

“Fruit?” she asked the next morning.

“Why would he want fruit?”

Belle shrugged. “Ok maybe chocolate.”

“Is he your Valentine then?” Gold asked and Belle sighed.

“A car?”

“In six years.”

Another sigh. “Legos?”

“He’s never much been into building things,” Gold pointed out.

“The commercial said boys love them.”

“Not Bae.”

Yet another sigh.

It took all of Belle’s courage to go back to the bloody toy store one last time. His birthday was the next day, the big party that afternoon. There wasn’t any time to spare, not anymore. She was going to have to get something and get it _now_. Wandering the store gave her no more ideas and the proprietor likely thought she was crazy by now.

And then she came back to that game. Kids _loved_ games. She knew that much. She grabbed it and took it up to the shop owner. “What do I need to play this game?”

He smiled and she knew _he_ knew he had made a rather large sale. He showed her to the latest Playstation, the surround sound speakers, the fancy controllers. She had no idea what was optional and so left the store with every little thing the guy suggested. Bae would like it. She was sure of it.

The big day rolled around and she wrapped up her little game. She wouldn’t tell Gold what she had done. She wanted to surprise them all. The rest she wrapped up and left in the unused guest bedroom.

When it came time to unwrap presents, Belle was excited and nervous. His friend’s presents came first and they were varying degrees of interesting and downright strange. Then she told him to go ahead and open his father’s. When he unwrapped a set of Star Wars Legos and let out a whoop, Belle turned to her husband with one eyebrow raised. “I thought you said he didn’t like them.”

“Well, I couldn’t have you go get the same thing _I_ got him, now could I?”

“Hmph,” she responded with. “Open mine now Bae!”

He did with great relish but then stared at the game for a moment before looking at her, confusion in his eyes. Her husband leaned down close to her. “I told you we didn’t have the console for it,” he whispered.

There was such a sad look in her stepson’s eyes for a moment that she almost felt bad about the whole thing. “Bae, why don’t you go duck into the guest bedroom?” He stared at her for a moment, still with that furrow between his eyebrows that reminded her so much of her husband, but then understanding dawned. And a huge smile broke out on his face and before she could even blink he was up and running down the hall with his friends hot on his heels.

“You didn’t,” Gold said.

“Holy crap!” her stepson shouted from the other room.

“I did,” Belle said with a smirk.

Baelfire came running out of the room and wrapped his arms around her waist in a huge hug. “Mom you’re the best!” And then he was off again to grab his present and see about getting it set up in the back room.

“Well I guess you win.” Gold shook his head but the indulgent smile on his face told the whole story.

“I guess I did.” And the truth was that hearing her stepson call her “Mom” for the first time was really worth all the agonizing over his present.


End file.
